Ethnic minority people in the south-central coastal province of Ninh Thuan will be given support to access production land, said vice chairman of the provincial Committee for Ethnic Affairs Le Thanh Hung. The province is home to about 580,000 people, 22% of whom belong to ethnic minority groups. By the end of last year, about 3,033 ethnic households said they lacked production land, including 1,237 in the mountainous district of Bac Ai alone. Floods and land acquisition for the construction of reservoirs had damaged agricultural land, Hung said. After 1975, people planted crops on virgin soil and then left for other areas. The land they planted was then allocated to forestry plants. “It is difficult to identify the areas reclaimed by people because now they are managed by State-owned forestry plants,” Hung said. If such land was not classified as special-use forest, it should be given to people, he said, adding that if local authorities could not provide land for people to cultivate, they would help them shift to other jobs or find work overseas. Authorities in Phuoc Thang, Phuoc Thanh, Phuoc Hoa and Phuoc Tien communes in Bac Ai District planned to reallocate forestry land to people who lacked space to grow crops. In Ninh Son district's Lam Son commune, 277 households that have spent years repurposing forest soil for growing crops will be granted land-use right certificates. In Luong Son Commune of the same district, local authorities plan to hand over land from Hon Ba and Hon Vang forestry plants to 75 households. Besides local support, poor households from ethnic minority groups in disadvantaged areas will receive VND15 million ($714) each from the State budget and access to preferential loans up to VND15 million ($714) from the Bank of Social Policies to reclaim and improve production land. (Vietnam News Aug 19)
